San Diego Comic-Con 2012: Bates Motel – Mrs. Bates Was NEVER this Accommodating!

While walking the streets at this year’s Comic-Con, we’ve run across many strange and cool things. One thing that caught our eye in particular was this lovely lady who was handing out bars of soap in promotion of the upcoming A&E series “Bates Motel.”

We first heard word of A&E’s interest in developing a Psycho prequel series that would explore the twisted relationship between a young Norman Bates and his mother, Norma, at the beginning of the year. Development just fast tracked into a 10-episode series order for the Universal Television production. A&E has so much confidence in “Bates Motel” they don’t even need to see a pilot episode before putting this series on the air.

This is not the first time the origins of Norman Bates and his questionable mother-son relationship has been delved into. 1990’s Psycho IV: The Beginning had Anthony Perkins spilling his guts to a radio talk show host about the subject recreated in flashbacks by E.T.’s Henry Thomas and Black Christmas’ Olivia Hussey.

This is also not the first time a “Bates Motel” TV series has been proposed. Back in 1987 a TV movie pilot from the creator of “The Hitchhiker” failed to get a series order. If it had, each week Norman Bates’ ex-insane asylum roommate who inherited the Bates Motel from Norman after his death would have dealt with eerie happenings at the infamous motel, including the ghost of Norman’s mother. You can probably find the whole thing on YouTube right now.

As for the new “Bates Motel”, we’ll have to wait until some time in 2013 to check back into Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous motor lodge.